Category: Software

Debian remains to be my favorite distribution, however there’s one thing that’s missing, that thing is called PPA.

There were numerous discussions on this topic inside of Debian, but AFAIK without any visible movement. Thus, I decided to publish a utility I’ve been using for some time now.

PPA’s

Since its introduction, PPA’s are exclusively connected to Ubuntu and its derivatives (Mint, Elementary, etc …). But over time, a number of interesting projects appeared whose whole development is happening inside of PPA’s. To name few, I’m talking about TLP, Geary, Oracle Java Installer, Elementary OS and etc … Some of these projects are in WNPP without much happening for a long time, i.e: TLP

One option was to repackage these packages and then have them uploaded to Debian, or just go rogue and install them directly from its PPA’s. Title of this post might hint which path I took.

In theory, adding Ubuntu packages on your Debian system is a bad idea, and adding its PPA’s is probably even worse. But, I’ve been using couple (TLP, Geary, couple of custom icon sets) of these PPA’s on my personal/work boxes, and to be honest, never had a single problem. Also, setting Pinning priority to low for the PPA you added is never a bad idea.

As I couldn’t retain my curiosity for Ubuntu’s “Raring Ringtail” release, I ended up having a dual boot with Ubuntu 13.04 and Debian Sid.

Even thought at the moment 13.04 is only 24% complete, it’s already a pretty promising release. However, one thing that heavily annoyed me is that global menu and HUD (still) don’t work out of box with Eclipse IDE.

Being part of Debian Java team (working on Eclipse) I had to do something about it. To make it as simple as possible for you, I made a package which enables mentioned features.

Package is made for/tested and working on 32/64 bit architectures on 12.04/12.10/13.04 Ubuntu.

I’m fan of automation, as well as simplicity and as much as I tend to complicate my own life I generally enjoy making life easier for others. I’m of a belief that if you’re a Android developer who’s new to Linux and is using it as his development platform, you’ll have pretty hard time installing and setting up all the necessary tools.

Some people use Linux to make their life easier, not because they like to fiddle with Linux internals, for some time now I’m looking how Android SDK, Eclipse ADT plugin, hardware drivers as well as MTP support are installed as almost completely different components. And in order to install/configure some of these components you will need to role up your sleeves and dive into Terminal, something that almost every new or even experienced user will try to avoid.

That’s why I started thinking of ways how to make this process as simply as possible, and fast as possible. The solution I came up is called “android-sdk-installer“. Not very original name, I know, but this is a utility oriented to Linux (currently Debian and Ubuntu) which aims to automatically install and configures Android SDK, Eclipse ADT Plugin, adds hardware support for devices and enable full MTP support.

I did this project as part of my University Capstone project “Implementation of Android SDK into Debian Linux” where I explained everything down to the smallest detail as well as included the very first version of installer’s code. My intentions with this projects are to make current script fully working, after which I’m planning to package it into a Debian package as I’m the owner of Android SDK Debian ITP. Among many plans for the future one of the most important ones is to add a GUI as right now it’s represented in text mode.

This blog post isn’t only directed to ThinkPad owners as most notebook Linux users with Intel Core Duo 1/2 and i3/i5/i7 processors have been affected by this bug if not all. And yes, this problem is present on latest Debian Unstable and Ubuntu 11.10.

Prelude

I’m owner of Thinkpad X300, great machine except the fact that just recently I replaced its 3rd cooling fan! Yea, I do a lot of compiling and it’s on all the time, but still this kind of things shouldn’t happen. I first linked this problem to the fact that Thinkpad fan on Linux (as of 2.6.22) always works at what’s its basically maximum RPM, thus the reason there are numerous fan control scripts. My favorite one is Thinkfan, but controlling fan doesn’t really help if you have a overheating problem. For matter of a fact it working on its maximum speed might only help, with its own toll.

As of kernel 2.6.38 up until 3.1 (still present) there has been a problem of power regression but besides this I had slight problem with overheating. Regarding overheating in beginning I tried reporting bugs, tried different Thinkfan configurations, blamed proprietary software such as Adobe Flash for spiking up CPU temperature, however this problem was somewhat solved. After numerous battery calibrations and as these didn’t work in the end for battery life getting poorer with each day, I just blamed the factor that notebook was getting pretty old (~3 years).

2. DebConf11 main organizer, I really wanted to see how it’s all done on “corporate” level, for instance we’re going with hotels instead of student dorms and so on.

3. Migration to Linux infrastructure, make contacts and have some talks on this topic, because after DebConf11 in Bosnia a lot of institution will most probably open doors to open solutions such as Linux.

I went to this summit without any expectations or plans, just said I’ll play it by ear. This years UDS was held in Orlando, Florida before Orlando I was planning to stay in NYC for couple of days, therefor my whole plan was to get to NYC, then Orlando then head back home :-)

I :heart: NYC

I spent couple of days here with my cousins and friends, as always NYC never fails to surprise me, and I’ll always stop by even if it’s only for couple of days ;-) I wanted to meet up with couple of Debian people as well, but unfortunately my schedule was too tight so …